Tactics
Aerial combat is a 3-dimensional art with many intricacies that take years to master. Taking tactics seriously and taking some time to read up on and practice these principals however will already set you ahead of most casual players. Various Basic fighter maneuvers are mentioned in this article with an emphasis on how to use them to your advantage. You should always fly with the Rules of Air Fighting in mind, but like any set of rules, they are meant to be bent to suit the situation at hand. As with any other game or combat, it's better to bring friends along, wing tactics are covered in it's own article. Head-ons When two planes come at each other face to face guns ablazing, this is called the head-on. It is often (and rightfully so) lauded as a common beginner's tactic (and mistake). In most cases neither plane has a significant advantage and the result is a toss up, worse still, often both pilots are killed by gunfire or collision or the surviving 'winner' takes engine damage and must limp back home. The only times the head-on should be attempted is when: *You have disproportionately better firepower or durability, so your odds of surviving the head-on is much better than that of your opponent *You are out of options; your plane is damaged and all other options are unavailable to you and a 50:50 chance of winning the fight is better than your current situation *You are unaware of other tactics and the head-on is your go-to move After reading this article the latter shouldn't be a problem anymore. Improved head-on The head-on can be improved by not flying straight at the enemy but by flying off to the side and pointing at the enemy. This induces a sideslip and allows you to fire at the enemy head-on while greatly reducing the risk of collision as well as making yourself a slightly more difficult target to hit. Mouse-aim users can fly in one direction then point at the enemy to point his plane in that direction. Joystick users can apply gentle rudder to point at the enemy while applying slight opposite roll to counter the rudder's rolling effect. If the head-on is chosen, this small modification should be applied to improve your chances of survival somewhat. Against a head-on Against a pilot attempting to use a head-on engagement against you, you can simply evade and begin your turn early instead of engaging him. Should you want to turn this into a turning fight these few seconds you gain to start turning gives you a good starting advantage to get behind your opponent. Turn n Burn This style is called the turn and burn or TnB for short because it involves heavy turning (which burns energy). Some planes are ideally suited to the turn n burning style as they have light wingloadings that let them turn harder (while losing less energy than a heavier wingloaded plane) and have good power to weight ratios to help maintain some energy in these maneuvers. Some planes are decidedly not suited for the turn and burn style and many new players make the mistake of pushing their heavy planes into a turning fight Reversals Once you pick up a tail while turnfighting it is essential to try and reverse the situation (alternatively you can try to maintain a safe distance or perform guns defense until a teammate comes to shake off or kill the bandit) the following maneuvers try to cause an opponent to overshoot and give up his rear Barrel Rolls The high-G barrel roll is a defensive maneuver in which the defender goes into a barrel roll with the intent of lowering his net forward velocity and forcing his opponent to overshoot, if he is unable to react quickly enough to compensate. Snap Rolls Similar to the barrel roll but being much quicker, the snap roll is a roll that stalls (one wing) of the aircraft momentarily to instantly and temporarily lower your forward speed. This lower speed should hopefully cause your opponent to overshoot. Because it requires that the opponent not have enough time to react, this maneuver must be performed at close range, probably when already in guns range. Unavailable for mouse-aimers or other virtual instructor modes. Scissors If your turn rate or roll rate is superior that that of your opponent's you can start scissoring. This involves a bunch of turning while rolling left and right to keep the turns alternating in direction. A plane that isn't able to keep up with your turns or unable to roll (and therefore change direction) as quickly will be unable to keep up and eventually give up his back. Spiral Climbs The spiral climb can be used if you have a climbing advantage over your opponent. Best case scenario your opponent is simply unable to keep up but often it's a delaying tactic to allow for teammates to come help you. It has the advantage over regular straight climbing by allowing you to move relatively little (allowing for teammates to come help you easier) and by constantly turning and making yourself a more difficult target than if you were simply climbing straight. Spiral Dives The spiral dive can be used in two ways, to out-turn your opponent or to force an overshoot. A heavier wingloaded plane will be unable to follow a lighter wingloaded plane, in which case the spiral dive is simply being used as a tight turning circle and the dive adds energy into the mix. The pilot being chased can adjust the depth of the dive to maintain the chase at the speed his plane is best suited for. Should the heavier plane make the mistake of maintaining the chase throughout the spiral dive he will quickly find himself out-turned and with an opponent on his back. By going into a dive both planes pick up speed. By cutting engine and deploying flaps, airbrakes and perhaps even landing gear you can trick an opponent into speeding past you as you quickly slow down. The dive adds energy to the unwitting chasing plane and the spiral turn hides this trick by distracting the opponent while giving him a difficult to hit constantly turning target. Boom n Zoom First of all the Boom and Zoom (BnZ for short) requires an energy advantage in the form of superior altitude. Upon finding a bogey at a lower altitude, the BnZer dives and picks up speed and attacks the enemy. After the pass the BnZer zoom climbs (a climb that is too great to be sustainable) to safety. The goal of this tactic is to keep a safe distance from retaliation by maintaining an altitude (and therefore energy) difference from the bogey. At the moment of the bounce there should be such an energy difference that the BnZer climbs away so quickly that the bogey is unable to follow and has a very limited window of opportunity (or none at all) to return fire. It's important to note that altitude alone is not enough, there needs to be a distinct energy advantage or the bogey can simply follow into the zoom climb and counter-attack, which is what an energy fighter may try to do against a boom and zoomer by hiding his energy state. Energy fighting principles can also be incorporated into the boom and zoom, by modifying the attacks in such a way so as to prevent the enemy from gaining energy. The loose deuce can be seen as a tactic using boom and zoom with energy fighting principles. Planes best suited for this time typically have: #Good climb rates in order to achieve an altitude advantage to begin with) #Good firepower to be able to inflict damage withinin the short time frame of the bounce #Mass, since heavy planes are able to zoom with great efficiency #High Vne (max speed at which the plane starts to shake/flutter) #Good controllability at high speed Energy fighting Energy fighting is an art in which you try to maintain or gain an energy advantage over your enemy, then use this energy advantage (and consequent maneuverability) to dominate your opponent. If encountered by an opponent with more energy the opponent will usually start performing boon and zoom attacks. The energy fighter must try to build up their energy by taking the time between attacks to climb to whittle away at the bogey's energy advantage by raising his own, or maneuvering in such a way so as to waste the opponent's energy while conserving his own. Stall Fighting The goal is to trick an opponent with a higher stall speed or lower climb rate, or simply less energy to follow you into a zoom climb. Once both planes slow down hopefully your opponent runs out of energy quicker and stalls earlier than you. This then gives you your opponents back and gives you an opportunity to shoot at a very slow and immobile enemy. WEP/throttle boost and flaps should be used to try and delay your stall as much as possible. If the enemy doesn't stall earlier than you or if this is attempted with too little distance, you are risking making yourself a vulnerable target yourself in this technique. Rope a Dope A more subtle variant to trick your enemy into a stall, this technique is named after a technique Muhammad Ali used, in which he lay back on the ropes of a boxing ring and let his opponent hit him for almost an hour, letting the ropes absorb most of the energy of the hits and tiring out his opponent. Once his opponent was tired and had his guard down Ali was able to down a defenseless opponent. The idea in this aerial tactic is similar, the goal is to trick your opponent into climbing at you and hiding your energy advantage so as to make him think he has the advantage and climb after you enthusiastically. This maneuver must be made close enough to the opponent to trick him into think he's close to a gun solution but still far enough that he never actually has a shot on you. Again, if performed incorrectly you make yourself a very vulnerable target.